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In
December 1996, both chambers of the Swiss parliament unanimously approved
a Federal Decree to appoint a commission of experts whose task was to
conduct a historical and legal probe into the fate of assets which reached
Switzerland as a result of the National Socialist regime. After a five-year
period of investigative activity, the Independent Commission of Experts
Switzerland  Second World War (ICE) is pleased to present its Final
Report to the public in German (original version), French, Italian, and
English. The Final Report is divided into seven main chapters and comprises
approximately 600 pages. It is published by the Federal Publications and
Supplies Office (EDMZ) and commercialized by Pendo Editions Zurich. In
addition, the Final Report will also be accessible beginning 22 March
2002 (from 12:00 pm) on internet (www.uek.ch).

On 19
December 2001, exactly five years after the Swiss government (Federal
Council) had named the members of the Independent Commission of Experts
Switzerland  Second World War and entrusted them with a detailed
description of their investigative tasks, the ICE chaired by Prof. Jean-François
Bergier concluded its mission of historical research and, seizing the
occasion of its official dissolution by the Federal Council, formally
presented Federal Councillor Ms. Ruth Dreifuss with a copy of its concluding
report. The production phase, which included the task of translating along
with the organization of publishing and printing, lasted about three months,
and the ICE is finally able to present its Final Report to the public
in the original German as well as in French, Italian, and English versions.
It was the common desire of both the ICE and the Federal Council that
the Report be published simultaneously in all of these languages.

Relationship
between the Studies and the Final Report
Last year, at two press conferences held at the end of August and the
end of November respectively, the ICE presented 18 of the studies, research
contributions, and legal analyses in a series of 25 volumes published
by Chronos Editions (Zurich). These individual reports were written by
the ICE's research teams as well as by commissioned experts, and were
approved by the members of the Commission. The remaining seven studies
will also be published together with the final report today. These works
illustrate the entire range of issues covered by the Commission's research
assignment, representing the fruit of an analysis of sources held in public
and private archives both in Switzerland and abroad. In all of the historical
studies, research contributions, and in the two volumes of collected analyses
regarding private and public law, the Commission has made it a primary
concern to embrace, on as wide a scope as possible and in all their complexity,
the numerous specific issues and aspects relating to its research mission.
As a rule, the studies also contain appendices listing the sources consulted
along with precise references to the archive holdings consulted by the
research assistants. For this reason, these publications also represent
a unique starting point for the in-depth research into the Nazi period
that will be taking place in Switzerland and abroad even after the ICE
has ceased its activity.

Included
in the mandate conferred on the ICE was the task of drawing up a Final
Report for the attention of the Federal Council. The individual chapters
and sub-chapters of this Final Report were written by the members of the
Commission, whereas certain parts of the rather lengthy chapter 4 
with its twelve sub-chapters  as well as chapter 5 were written
by the authors of the studies upon the instruction and in cooperation
with the Commission. The editing team of the German (original) version
of the Final Report was composed of Mario König and Bettina Zeugin.

Structure
of the Final Report
Chapter 1 (Introduction) describes how in the middle of the 1990s, the
role of Switzerland during the Second World War became a topic of popular
discussion. It goes on to outline the issues and status of historical
research at the time, and continues by sketching out the planned research
program along with the individual work phases. The relationship between
the academic disciplines of History and Jurisprudence is discussed, and
the significance of an unprecedented, privileged access to archives 
granted pursuant to the Federal Decree of 1996 for a five-year period
 is highlighted.

Chapter
2 leads the reader into the history of the inter-war years and into the
period of the Second World War. It conveys the national setting and the
international context within which the rise of the National Socialist
regime took place and the crimes of Nazism became possible. Without anticipating
the results of the Commission's investigations, it relies on the state
of historical research to portray the radical political, economic, and
social upheaval of the 1930s and 1940s taken from an international perspective
but with a primary accent on how they affected Switzerland.

Chapter
3 deals with the Swiss policy on refugees. In this chapter, the ICE also
picks up on the criticism which was particularly directed at the statistics
on the acceptance and rejection of civilian refugees further to the December
1999 publication of the interim report "Switzerland and Refugees
in the Nazi Era". In addition, the ICE takes a closer look at the
criticism that was publicly expressed with respect to the conduct of the
Federation of Jewish Communities in Switzerland.

Chapter
4 takes up the topic of the foreign trade connections of Swiss companies
and/or their subsidiaries together with the asset transactions that took
place especially in the economic area under Nazi hegemony. Here the Commission
reverts in part to the results of studies that it has already published.
This "Economic Chapter" comprising a total of twelve sub-chapters
deals with the topics of foreign trade, the armaments industry and the
export of war materials, electricity exports, Alpine transit and transport
services, gold transactions, the banking system and financial services,
Swiss insurance companies in Germany, industrial companies and their subsidiaries
in Germany, the use of prisoners of war and forced labor, «Aryanization»,
the flight and the looting of cultural assets, and lastly German camouflage
and covert asset-relocation operations in Switzerland.

Chapter
5 examines the issues under discussion from a legal point of view. In
the sub-chapter on public law for instance, the legal aspects of Swiss
war-time government by executive authority, refugee policy, diplomatic
protection of Swiss Jews residing abroad, neutrality policy, as well as
the question of looted gold are examined and assessed. The sub-chapter
on international private law spotlights the dealings in looted cultural
assets and trade in foreign securities, as well as the issue of «dormant
assets».

Chapter
6 conducts a general survey of issues of property rights in the post-war
period and thus delves into core issues the Commission was charged to
investigate. This chapter brings together the findings spread out in the
numerous individual studies and places them into a larger context. The
major points of reference are the 1946 Decree on Looted Assets and the
so-called Registration Decree of 1962. In addition, the chapter analyzes
the conduct of the major Swiss players (the economy, the government, and
the judiciary) with respect to restitution claims after 1945.

In chapter
7, the ICE sifts through all of its newly acquired realizations and insights
in order to assess the behavior of the Swiss decision-makers in the areas
of politics, the economy, and the judiciary with respect to those who
were victims of Nazi injustice. A critical questioning of the historiography
of the cold war period together with the historical portrayal painted
at the time represent the point of departure for the Commission's historical
and legal analysis. The Commission provides its assessment on refugee
policy, assets which arrived in Switzerland and their «dormancy»
after 1945, neutrality law and neutrality policy, the challenge posed
by the Nazi system of injustice to the Swiss constitutional state, as
well as the question of how much was known about the Holocaust and on
the issue of political responsibility. The ICE also confronts the thesis
that Switzerland allegedly prolonged the war.

Publication
and Sale in Switzerland and Abroad
The Final Report is published by the Federal Publications and Supplies
Office (EDMZ). An agency agreement has been concluded between the EDMZ
and Pendo Editions to enable it to be commercialized in bookstores nationally
and internationally. The Italian version is sold by Armando Dadò
Editions (Locarno). In addition, negotiations on distribution rights are
being planned with publishing houses in both French and English-speaking
countries.